Full Interview: Cardi B Asks Bernie Sanders About Tax Hikes for ‘Extreme Socialism’

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Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty, Theo Wargo/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released the full video of his interview with rap star Cardi B Thursday, which touched on President Trump’s “overt” racism, police brutality, free college, and free health care.

The presidential candidate sat down for an interview with the “Please Me” rapper in a nail salon in Detroit and discussed a number of issues, ranging from police brutality to free health insurance.

“Cardi B’s nails are juuuust a little different than mine. Our views on the issues are pretty similar,” Sanders wrote in a tweet, along with the interview.

Sanders described Trump as an “overt racist” right off the bat, and Cardi B seemed to agree.

“I’m trying to advocate the youth in my community because I feel like there’s a serious problem right now in America. We have this bully as a president, and the only way to take them out is somebody winning,” Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, said.

“You know, we got to get rid of Donald Trump obviously because Donald Trump is an overt racist,” Sanders said. “He’s way out there.”

“But right now people are just not scared to show it,” the rapper agreed, pivoting the conversation to “police brutality against black men” and asking Sanders what he would do to change that.

“I don’t want people thinking that we’re trying to attack the police. Because let me tell you something, there was this one time that I started to feel like I hate the police, they’re pigs,” Cardi B said.

“But there’s a lot of cops that go in their jobs and they want to protect their people,” she conceded.

“So we need police departments that look like the communities that they serve — we get rid of a lot of this militarization of the police department, which is a form of intimidating people,” Sanders said.

The rap star, who has lamented excessive taxation in the past, asked the socialist senator how he can manage to “work around” voters who fear increased taxes.

“People are just afraid to pay more in taxes than they are already paying, so how do you think we work around that?” the Grammy-winner asked.

Sanders responded with lines familiar to those who have listened to his stump speeches, arguing that the benefits – in the form of free government health care – received will outweigh the additional taxation.

“The overwhelming majority of the people will end up paying less than they’re currently paying in health care. Their taxes will go up but they’re not going to be paying premiums, deductibles, [or] copayments,” he said.

Cardi B asked Sanders toward the end of the interview if he would be able to eliminate student debt. He repeated his pledge to make colleges and universities “tuition-free” but did not provide any additional details.

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